Facing Termination Over False Experience Documents: What Are Her Options and Legal Risks?

Hi all, My sister is currently employed at Accenture and received a call from HR stating that the previous experience documents she provided are false. They informed her that if she does not accept this, legal action will be taken, or if she does accept, she will be terminated.

Question about Experience Letter and Termination

My question is, will she receive an experience letter considering she worked almost 1.9 years in that company if she admits the documents are false? Or will she be terminated immediately? Also, what legal steps might the organization take if she does not accept?

Please suggest.

Hi, Whether she accepts it or not, the net result will be termination due to submitting fake documents. They will proceed with the termination, which will serve as proof of employment. Proper relieving, along with an experience letter, will be difficult to obtain and should not be expected.

What will be the legal actions if they want to proceed, sir? Because they clearly stated that she will be processed with their legal team and receive a show cause notice in 2 days if she doesn't accept. Thank you.

Hi, Whether she submitted fake experience documents or not? If no, it means she can defend strongly. If yes, it means it's better to accept and get rid of the issue.

What will be the legal actions: It depends on the nature of the contract. Anything committed by her signing an indemnity bond or so?

There is no such bond signed by her, but I heard some companies want to recover money from the employee in such cases. Is it true?

Hi, In the absence of a bond, once the employment contract is terminated by the employer, the employer-employee relationship comes to an end. The employer can hold the full and final settlement and deny proper relieving.

If you check the initial appointment order, there should be a clause stating that in case of submission of incorrect documents by the employee, the employer has the right to terminate the contract without any notice.

To recover the entire salary paid to the employee post-termination, there should be strong documentary evidence. Since this is not a case of embezzling money from the employer, there hopefully will not be any harm caused by the employer.

Dear OP,

The issue of genuine vs. fake experience documents

The moot question here is whether the experience documents are genuine or fake. If they are genuine, then she can clear the issue with HR in an amicable manner. However, if the documents are fake, it is a serious matter as it amounts to forgery, which is a criminal offense chargeable under section 463 of IPC.

Potential legal actions by the company

Whether the company will proceed legally depends on how things pan out, and they might take legal action if the issue becomes confrontational.

Therefore, make a decision based on the truth, which only your sister knows. My suggestion is that your sister should try to resolve the situation as amicably as possible.

Regards,
Arun

An organization like Accenture will not pardon the mistake so easily. Submitting a false experience letter indicates that the employee would have been ineligible for employment otherwise. This is not only a fraud against the organization but also results in some genuine candidates losing an opportunity for employment. In this context, it is too much to expect that the experience letter would be credible.

As to what action Accenture would take, it is anybody's guess. At best, you can hope that they will not escalate this into a criminal complaint or seek compensation for the fraud committed against them.

You have yet to inform whether the allegations regarding the documents are true. If the allegations are baseless, the issue could be addressed on its merits.